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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

One Day with Donald Maass and the 2017 PPWC Prequel

By: Catherine Dilts

According toDonald Maass, New York agent and author of writing how-to books that push writers to
new levels: "Your protagonist is your vengeance. Let him
loose."

I attended thePikes Peak Writers Conference Thursday
Prequelwith Donald Maass on April 27. The program began as an add-on to the
regular Friday through Sunday conference schedule. The Thursday Prequel has
become such a success that it is now offered every year. Many of us who can’t
attend the entire conference opt for this one full day.

One day with Donald Maass provided nearly an
entire writing conference worth of inspiration and education. He opened by
stating that our goal as writers should be to take the reader on an emotional
journey. How do you do this? Not, as you might think, by getting the reader to
feel what the characters feel.

I had attended a Maass workshop at the 2012
PPWC. Later that year I would sell my first short story and my first novel.
Were the two events directly related? Hard to say, although the workshop
certainly pushed my writing up a notch.

In many ways, back then I was like a high school
kid sitting in on a graduate school class. I was definitely learning, but a lot
of the workshop was over my head. Five years ago I did not know what I did not
know. Now that I’ve been multi-published in short and long fiction, I was
curious whether there was anything else I could possibly learn about writing.Silly me.

This year’s Maass workshop was based on his bookThe Emotional Craft of Fiction: How
to Write the Story Beneath the Surface. I had not read the book, but will
have to obtain a copy now.

What this
is not: An author creates a
character who has an emotional experience. Let’s say – FEAR of walking into the
creepy old house. In the course of reading the story, a reader experiences the
fear exhibited by the character.Wrong.

What this
is: Deeply thoughtful writing
that creates emotional connection with the reader. "Finding the meaning in
moments is what makes an emotional experience for readers." The
reader must actually process the events, instead of passively observing
them.

How I
interpret this:Just because the
character entering the creepy house experiences fear doesn’t mean the reader
will. The reader might think the character is Too Stupid To Live, and fail to
connect with the character or the story. Writers have to dig deeper to cause an
emotional reaction in the reader, beyond the obvious surface of the story. If
you don't care about the characters, or have hope he or she can overcome the
odds, you won't have an emotional reaction to the story.

Maass described cognitive evaluation - when we
are surprised, we have to stop to process the situation. Generating this
surprise comes from not going for the surface, the cliche, the obvious. The processing happens in our working
memory. If readers pause to "chew on something," they come to their
own conclusions. This emotion is his or her own. Instead of writing in
camera shots, Maass suggested writers try a me-centered narration, which he
called close third person.

Think of the novels or stories that have stuck
with you. That keep popping up in your

thoughts at odd moments. Works that have
changed you in some way. These aren’t necessarily classics – well-written genre
fiction can have the same impact. These are the stories that connected with you
emotionally, and perhaps even elevated the way you perceived your own
experiences.

During the workshop, I jotted a dozen pages of
notes for my work-in-progress. I was inspired to think in new ways about my
characters, and imagined scenes that add layers to the story. I’m excited to
start working on this project. Five years after my first published novel
and short story, I still have a lot to learn.

About
the Author: Catherine Dilts is the author of the Rock Shop
Mystery series, set in the Colorado mountains, while her short stories appear
in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The Chemistry of Heroes, which appeared
in the AHMM May 2016 issue, was a Derringer short story award finalist.
Catherine’s day job involves environmental regulatory issues, and for fun she
fishes, hikes, and runs. You can learn more about Catherine at http://www.catherinedilts.com/

Pikes Peak Writers

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